Wagon Train playset brings $15,255 at Philip Weiss saleA Wagon Train playset, made around 1960 by Marx Toys and mint in the box, sold for a record $15,255 at a three-day multi-estate sale held October 24-26 by Philip Weiss Auctions in Oceanside, New York.

News-Antique.com - Oct 29,2008 - (Oceanside, N.Y.) - A Wagon Train playset, made around 1960 by Marx Toys and based on the popular television show of the time, sold for $15,255 – a new world auction record for a Marx playset – at a multi-estate sale held Oct. 24-26 by Philip Weiss Auctions. The playset (Series 5000, Stock No. 4888) was mint and unused in the box, the only blemish being a few tears to the accessory bags inside.

Ironically, the Wagon Train set was sold just a few minutes after another Marx playset crossed the block and held, albeit briefly, the world auction record, too. It was a Ben-Hur playset (Series 5000, Stock No. 4701), also made circa 1960 and in mint condition in the box. The set sailed past its pre-sale estimate of $2,000-$4,000 to bring $9,320. The Wagon Train set was expected to bring $1,000-$2,000.

“Obviously, the prices realized for the Marx playsets were a nice surprise,” said Philip Weiss. “Overall, the auction did about what we expected. The better items brought solid prices and the mid-level merchandise held its own. Given the current state of the financial markets and the economy as a whole, I'd say the sale was a success.” About 1,300 lots changed hands over the course of three days.

Mr. Weiss said the crowd was modest by his standards – only about 150 people in total – but phone and absentee bidding was brisk and 1,500 people registered online, via LiveAuctioneers.com and eBayLiveAuctions. During the past year, Philip Weiss Auctions has seen numerous auction records fall, including unprecedented prices for stamps (6); a Punch Cigar Store figure; and now a Marx playset.

Other top lots from the auction follow. All prices quoted include a 13 percent buyer's premium.

Original pen-and-ink Peanuts comic strips by the legendary cartoonist and illustrator Charles Schulz have become commonplace at most Philip Weiss Auctions, but that doesn't stop them from fetching dizzying prices. Four Peanuts strips sold for a combined $98,000. Included in the group was an original Sunday page with a cute bowling story line that went to a determined bidder for $33,000.

An extremely rare cardboard concert poster from 1969, advertising some of the great rock 'n' roll acts of the day (Jimi Hendrix, the Monkees, Glen Campbell and Rod McKuen), went for $5,750. The poster, from the collection of Concerts West promoter William Easley, advertised the spring and early summer lineup of shows at the Sam Houston Coliseum and Houston Music Hall in Houston, Tex.

Another rock 'n' roll poster – this one advertising an appearance by Jimi Hendrix at the Electric Factory on Feb. 21-22, 1968, extremely rare and in overall excellent condition – commanded $4,970. Returning to toys, a lot comprising a pair of Heyde elephants, made by the renowned German toy maker Heyde in the teens or early 1920s, climbed to $2,600. The lot included accessories (riders, etc.).

The Friday session was dedicated, in part, to rare and vintage dolls. A top earner was a lot of